OFFICIAL NAME
Talleres de Oración y Vida
Una nueva evangelisatión
ACRONYM
PLW
ALSO KNOWN AS
Prayer and Life Workshops
ESTABLISHED
1984
HISTORY
The Prayer and Life Workshops were founded by Rev. Ignacio Larrañaga (1928-2013), a Capuchin priest born in Spain. His experience with a group of lay people in the Chilean city of Santiago convinced him to prepare people of various nationalities to be guides who could start prayer workshops in different countries.
As Fr Larrañaga held meetings in different countries, he initiated the Prayer and Life Workshops by training members or guides to conduct them. In 1987, on the occasion of the first International Congress, a Prayer Manual was approved which contained contributions from guides from 15 countries.
The PLW expanded rapidly and on 4 October 1997 the Pontifical Council for the Laity recognised the Prayer and Life Workshops as an international association of the faithful with legal status.
In 2004, the Founder added the subtitle “A New Evangelisation” to the name of the association because he wanted to include the full scope of the work in a real and comprehensive way.
The 1990s and the early 2000s saw the establishment of a school for guide preparation, PLW Young Adults and marriage courses. After the death of the Founder in Guadalajara, Mexico, on 28 October 2013, at the age of 85, PLW Adolescents was created in 2014 for those between 13 and 19 years of age.
IDENTITY
The original intention of the founder of Prayer and Life Workshops was to teach the People of God to pray and to live according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Workshops are an ecclesial service that offer a practical method to help people to pray in a systematic, varied and gradual way by progressing from the very first steps to the most profound contemplation.
The Association seeks to introduce its members to a life of prayer by helping them to combine prayer and ordinary temporal activity; to rekindle in them an awareness of their responsibility for the mission of the Church in the world; to encourage lay vocations to the apostolate and to the service of the Church in dioceses and parishes.
The initial preparation of the members lasts one year. It introduces them to the history, charism and life of the Association, and to different ways of prayer. After they are sent out on mission, each member is expected to pray daily and to see how it can be improved. In this way all members will move forward in authentic and ongoing conversion and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
ORGANISATION
The governance structure of the Association is comprised of ordinary and extraordinary assemblies and coordinating teams. The latter are the International Team, the Zonal Teams (grouping several countries or national areas), the National Teams (grouping several cities in the same country or several sectors within a large city), the Local Teams which group members living in the same sector of the city or in small towns, and the Nuclei which is the form in which Workshops are started in any city or town with two or three members.
The international and zonal teams are made up of a coordinator, secretary, treasurer and materials manager. In the national and local teams there are also coordinators of the School for Guide Preparation, future members and Youth. PLW Adults and PLW Youth are each run by one member. Adolescents and Children PLWs are run by two members previously selected by the Local Team.
WORKS
The Association’s main works are the PLW, practical courses for learning to pray which are open to anyone who is baptised (the Prayer Workshops and the Life Workshops), and the annual retreats for guides and the schools of guide preparation intended for members of the Association.
The PLWs are divided into age groups: adults, young people, adolescents and children. Marriage courses, on the other hand, are addressed to married couples. They help them to improve communication and dialogue between them in a climate of openness and welcome so that they can understand each other, forgive each other and establish harmony. These courses are given by a married couple who are members of the Association.
PUBLICATIONS
Books by the founder Fr Ignacio Larrañaga.
WEBSITE
HEADQUARTERS
Talleres de Oración y Vida
Una Nueva Evangelización
Apartado postal 110121
Calle 142 No. 11 – 50 apto. 706
Bogotá, Colombia
Tel. [+57]7573089, [+57] 3133849903
E-mail: coordinaconintenacional@tovpil.org
